"Hmm"
Fatty Huang thought it made sense, so he said, "Let's wait and see the situation here first."
Jiang Dalang was helpless.
But he had no other choice but to wait and see patiently.
At this moment, the officers and soldiers had already rushed into the outer river beach and were heading straight for the heart of Guifanlou along the passage. With torches shining, they could almost see the reflections of the flames on the passage outside.
“Kill!”
"Those who surrender will be spared death."
"Those who resist will be killed without mercy!"
The officers and soldiers, holding long guns, drove the people outside to rush inside.
Ma Zhiwu in the rear frowned. The other side obviously intended to use their peripheral personnel to break up their inner army formation.
But after a moment, his frown relaxed and he whispered, "Set fire!"
"Quick, set fire!"
The people next to him immediately shouted.
After the order was given, a large amount of hay was thrown into the entrance of the passage.
Then the tinder ignited the straw and the fire started burning all of a sudden.
The passage was originally long, and although there were several roads connecting it and several entrances that could directly lead to Guifan Tower, the people in Guifan Tower had already set fire to it.
When the outside personnel ran three or four miles and finally arrived, they were frightened out of their wits by the raging flames mixed with billowing smoke.
"You bastards, you sold us out like that."
"Damn it! There's a fire in front of me and pursuers behind me. I'm doomed."
"Jump into the ditch quickly."
Someone shouted.
This channel actually still uses the previous canal route, with channels on both sides and canal water in the middle.
By jumping into the canal, one can swim to the Guifan Tower, because the fire only blocks the entrance to the passage, but the canal mouth cannot be blocked.
But how could they escape faster than the shore if they jumped into the water? Soon, a large number of people behind were stabbed to death by spears from the soldiers chasing them in the corridors on both sides of the passage, and there were screams everywhere.
"Commander, they are blocking the road with fire!"
The people in charge of the front line here are Di Qing and another commander. Together with the people from the yamen, there are about 4,000 people. At the front is the elite Yulongzhi troops where Di Qing is.
Upon learning that the enemy was actually using fire, the young Di Qing said without hesitation: "The shieldmen go in front, and the crossbowmen follow behind them. Use the crossbows to clear the way to prevent them from adding more fuel to the fire. The rest of us go outside to find buckets, sail over, and scoop water to put out the fire."
There are about seven or eight passages connecting to the canals outside. There is a large shantytown on the riverbank, which is where people from outside live. There is no shortage of daily necessities such as buckets.
Although you can also wait for the other party's fire to go out.
But there are many escape routes in Guifanlou. If they use fire to stop the pursuit and transfer people and money, the operation will inevitably fail.
So Di Qing immediately chose to attack by force.
Countless arrows from bows and crossbows shot out like raindrops in the flames, shooting the people from Guifanlou who were originally going to throw straw and making them run away in panic.
Immediately afterwards, dozens of small boats came over. The soldiers on the boats first jumped into the river to wet themselves, and then got on the boats and approached the flames. They started pouring water when they were about three to five meters away.
In an instant the flames became much smaller.
Ma Zhiwu frowned on the slope in the distance. His disadvantage was that he had no equipment.
The other imperial guards were fully armed, with a set of armor, shield, and bow and crossbow costing hundreds of strings of cash. They didn't even have leather armor, let alone armor. Only a few elite confidants had the imperial guards' equipment.
More importantly, the crossbow.
If they had bows and crossbows, this terrain wouldn't be so bad.
Unfortunately, the weapons and equipment of the imperial guards were indeed circulated on the black market, but not much was circulated. There were so many gangsters in Bianliang, and after dividing them up, there were only a few thousand or tens of thousands of sets, which was not enough.
Ma Zhiwu knew that the enemy had shields, and his more than 200 bows and crossbows would probably be useless, so he could only sigh and say, "Retreat to the slope."
"Quick, retreat quickly."
"Let's go, let's go."
"Go upstairs first."
The people in Guifan Tower evacuated upwards one after another.
What followed was a tough battle, and it took place in the dark, with both sides having to fight with torches.
Soon the officers and soldiers rushed in. There were seven or eight passages. The commanders of each battalion ordered an attack, and more than a thousand fully armed soldiers rushed in.
Behind them were a large number of Kaifeng government officials. Almost at the moment the soldiers rushed out, more than 200 archers arranged by Ma Zhiwu on the right slope immediately opened fire, and hundreds of crossbow arrows were shot out in an instant.
Ma Zhiwu actually wanted to use these bows and crossbows as his trump cards and use them at critical moments, but he was afraid that the troops in front would encounter the enemy's regular army and collapse directly.
By then, the people in Guifanlou will collapse at the first touch, and will be swept out directly, taking them down with them.
Therefore, we must first use bows and crossbows to temporarily stop the opponent's offensive, and then readjust the formation.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”
A large number of crossbow arrows drew an arc in the air and fell into the pile of guards who had just rushed in, making a "ding-dang-dang" sound.
Some of the arrows hit the rock wall of the passage, some hit the ground, and most of them hit the shields or armor of the guards. The crossbow arrows collided with the armor, and some even produced metal sparks.
"Do they have crossbows?"
Di Qing, another commander, and three Kaifeng Prefecture judicial and registrar officers looked at each other.
Bows and crossbows are prohibited items, yet they ended up in the hands of criminals.
But several people remained silent.
Everyone knows that the Imperial Guards are quite bad, and their weapons are often resold.
Liu Yuanyu is still in prison. In addition to corruption and abuse of power, one of the charges against him is reselling weapons and other contraband items.
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